Briquet manufacture.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

THOMAS INGHAM, OF LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND.

BRIQUET MANUFACTURE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 695,210, dated March 11,1902.

Application filed August 20,1901. Serial No. 72,703. (No specimens.)

'10 61/66 whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, THOMAS INGHAM, manufacturing chemist, a subject of the King of Great Britain, residing in Liverpool, in the countyofLancaster,Englaud,(whose fullpostal address is 61 Lord street, Liverpool,) have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Briquet Manufacture,(for which application has been made in England, under No. 1,773, and dated January 25, 1901,) of which the following is a specification.-

This invention has for its object the manufacture of briquets by means of a new binding material-namely, the mixture of algin and celluloid substance, the residue formed in the manufacture of algiu, or the material formed when seaweeds (preferably of the laminaria genus) are boiled in Water with about one-eighth of their weight of carbonate of soda or an equivalent amount of hydrate of soda or carbonate or hydrate ofpotash until the seaweed is thoroughly disintegrated. I may either use this mixture itself or the residue after the alkaline alginate has been in small or in large part extracted therefrom. This seaweed decoction has hitherto had as much of the algin as possible filtered out from it and the residue has been thrown away. It is this residue or the original mixture, with more or less of the algin extracted from it, which I use for my binding material. I take of this binding material about two hundredweights to the ton of coal-dust, coke, ore, charcoal,and the like. After thoroughly mixing the two materials the mixture is pressed by suitable machinery into blocks or briquets of such size and shape as may be desired. They are then dried to rid them of whatever moisture they may contain. ever, that the briquets may stand exposure to moisture or wet weather, they are treated either before, during, or after the drying operation to the action of any substance which is known to make algin insoluble in water such, for instance, as a weak solution of chlorid of lime or chlorid of zinc, sulfuric acid, sulfurous acid, alum, methylated spirits,(alcoho1,) naphtha, or petroleum. If this treatment be carried out after the briquets have been dried, it is necessary to again dry the briquets before they arejready for market. I therefore prefer to render them insoluble dur- In order, howing the drying operation by bringing them in contact with the vapor of methylated spirits, naphtha, sulfuric acid, or hydrochloric acid while they are drying. Thus if they be dried in a tunnel through which heated air or gases are passed in the reverse direction I may add to the gases sulfurous acid or the like by simply using a cheap sulfurous fuel. I

In practice I have found that two gallons of alcohol are sufficient to make insoluble one ton of briquets. I have not ascertained the exact quantities required for any of the other reagents, and as this differs largely with richness in algin of the residue in practice it is easiest to adjust the fumes of the fixing agent by testing samples.

I am well aware that it has been proposed to decompose by boiling or long steeping in water various varieties of focus, lichen, Iceland moss, and Irish moss, and I make no claim whatever for the use of v these substances, but only for the use of laminaria (seaweed) for this purpose, as it is only the laminaria which contains algin, and consequently these are the only ones which, as far as my experience goes, can be fixed solid against the weather, and briquets made with soluble gum are worthless for commercial purposes.

I claim as my invention 1. The process of manufacturing briquets, which consists in mixing granular solid matter with a solution of alkaline alginate and cellulose, pressing the same, and rendering the alkaline alginate insoluble by treating it with any well-known fixer of alkaline alginate.

2. The process of manufacturing briquets, which consists in mixing granular solid matter with a solution of alkaline alginate, and cellulose, pressing the same and drying by means of hot gases traveling in the reverse direction intermixed with any known gas or vapor which is capable of so acting on the alkaline alginate in the briquet as to render it insoluble in water.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name, this 10th day of August, 1901, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

THOMAS INGIIAM.

Witnesses:

WM. P. THOMPSON, SIDNEY W. D01).

IOO 

